Insurgency
and
Tyranny in Central America1979 -
1989By William R.
MearaPublished
in April 2006 by Naval Institute Press
Want to understand insurgencies?
Read Contra Cross. Order your copy of Contra CrossAvailable in paperback and in .pdf form for e-book readersDiscuss
the book at the "Contra Cross" blog

"In 1949, Alexander Foote
wrote a small book, “A Handbook for Spies” which contains all one needs
to know
to conduct espionage. Now comes another small volume, “Contra Cross”,
by
William Meara which contains much of what one needs to understand to
counter or
for that matter support an insurgency. Based on his experience in El
Salvador and with
the Contras in
Honduras/Nicaragua during the 1980’s, Meara provides a crisp,
thoughtful exposition
of the problems and requirements for the winning of such conflicts.
Meara’s
thoughts and experiences are well worth pondering as our nation takes
on its
current adversaries."
Duane Clarridge – Thirty-three year veteran of the
CIA's clandestine
service, Chief of CIA Latin American Division 1981-84, conceiver and
chief of CIA
Counterterrorism Center 1986-88,author
of " The Spy for All Seasons."

“A
boots-in-the-mud
personal memoir from the battlefields of El Salvador’s Marxist
revolution and Nicaragua’s Contra War, Contra Cross is also an
eerily timely admonition of the challenges and pitfalls of today’s
‘transformational’ efforts to democratize the world. It is a warning
that victory will require both a very long-term commitment of major
national resources and some serious attitude adjustments by us,
beginning with our military and diplomatic corps.” -- Dr. Timothy
C. Brown, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, author of The
Real Contra War

Why does
the
United States have such difficulty dealing with insurgency?

A
look back at the Central American wars of the 1980s sheds light on the
problem. Contra Cross presents one young American officer’s
journey through Central America’s violent decade of revolution and
counterrevolution. Bill Meara started out as a teacher at a Catholic
school in Guatemala, but he went on to become one of fifty-five U.S.
military advisers assisting the Salvadorans in their fight against
communism. By the end of the decade, he was in the U.S. Foreign Service
working as a liaison officer to the Nicaraguan contras. Meara was one
of very few Americans to work on both sides of insurgency in the
region: in El Salvador he supported efforts to defeat insurgents; with
Nicaraguans he worked to keep an insurgency alive.

Contra Cross takes readers
into the
world of an American adviser struggling with cultural differences and
human rights violations while trying to stay alive in murderous El
Salvador. We join Meara on dangerous helicopter rides into contra base
camps on the Honduran-Nicaraguan border, and learn what it’s like to be
in a U.S. embassy under attack. From Special Forces school at Ft.
Bragg, to lunch with Communist defectors in El Salvador, to a contra
POW camp deep in the jungle, we get a taste of life on the cutting edge
of America’s controversial Central America policy.

More than a collection of war
stories, Contra
Cross explores the difficult moral and ideological issues of the
Central American wars. Meara’s experiences with insurgency and
counterinsurgency allow him to provide critically important insights on
why the United States has such difficulty dealing with ragtag armies of
third-world rebels.

“Dead-on accurate, readable, and
honest, this book will give no comfort to those gringo politicians
still mourning the communist failures in El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Bill Meara is someone who has the insurgency-counterinsurgency era in
Central America nailed.” -- Col. John Waghelstein, USA (Ret.),
Naval War College, former commander of U.S. Military Group – El
Salvador and of the 7th Special Forces Group

“Contra Cross is not
only a
refreshing and an uplifting change from most war memoirs, it is also
punctuated with the beautifully written highs and lows of everyday
life. Meara studiously avoids both personal aggrandizement and being an
apologist for American politicians. His clear and uncommon common sense
is refreshing and does much more: It adds weight to his observations
both as a Green Beret--trained officer and a U.S. State Department
foreign service officer. For the military historian as well as anyone
seeking a deeper understanding of how American overseas assistance
worked, this book is a must. The fact that the writing reflects
intelligence, candor, and fairness to all sides is a terrific bonus.”-- Loyd Little, former Green Beret
author of the award-winning Vietnam novel Parthian
Shot

William R. Meara
served
on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1988, attaining the rank
of captain, and then joined the U.S. Foreign Service where he has
served as a diplomat in Honduras, Spain, the Dominican Republic, the
Azores, the United Kingdom and Italy.